The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a longitudinal panel study that surveys a representative sample of more than 26,000 Americans over the age of 50 every two years. The study has collected information about income, work, assets, pension plans, health insurance, disability, physical health and functioning, cognitive functioning, genetic information and health care expenditures.

The CDHA assists researchers to create, document, and distribute public use microdata on health and aging for secondary analysis. Major research themes include: midlife development and aging; economics of population aging; inequalities in health and aging; international comparative studies of health and aging; and the investigation of linkages between social-demographic and biomedical research in population aging. The CDHA is one of fourteen demography centers on aging sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.